SOCIALIST SUNDAY SCHOOLS.
sunday schools for working-class children were established by American radicals before the twentieth century, notably by German and Finnish immigrant groups.
However, the more extensive Socialist Sunday school ‘movement was organized primarily by grass-roots, supporters of the Socialist Party of America during.
the 1900-1920 period. These children’s schools were English-speaking, eschewed any ethnic identifica tion, and sought to foster an understanding of and allegiance to working-class interests and basic social{st tenets among the next generation of laborers.
At least one hundred Socialist Sunday schools (sometimes referred to by other names, such as the Children’s Socialist Lyceum in Los Angeles) were organized in sixty-four cities and towns in twenty states. Prominent ones were located in New York City (which had fourteen schools in 1912), Rochester, Hartford, Newark, Buffalo (two in 1918), Philadelphia (two in 1912), Washington, D.C., Pittsburgh (two in 1916), Cleveland (three in 1912), Chicago (eight in 1919), Milwaukee (three in 1915), and Los Angeles.
Schools varied from a handful of students in one lass, asin the case of the Newport, Kentucky, school, to a thousand students in dozens of classes at the school that met at the Brownsville Labor Lyceum in Brooklyn. The average enrollment was probably less than a hundred students. Most schools existed for
several years, although there were schools opening ‘and closing in the same year and others that lasted for more than a halfdozen years (eg, the East Side Socialist School in. Manhattan, Williamsburg. and Brownsville schools in Brooklyn, Rochester Socialist Sunday School, and International Socialist Sunday School in Milwaukee) The two-hour morning school sessions consisted of agesdivided classes and general assembly times (with announcements, recitations, songs, and remarks by visitors)
Socialist Sunday school teaching focused primarAly on the nature of working-las life and class conflict, the character of the capitalist system and how it results in serious social problems such as poverty, crime, and unhealthy living and working conditions), and the value of cooperative industrial and personal relations. The schools were intended to counteract the overly individualistic, competitive, nationalistic, militaristic, and anti-working class themes that seemed to be prevalent in public schools and other aspects of capitalist culture (the press, mass entertainment, and the church). They were never expected to provide a complete socialist education for youth, only a more formal, systematic one (albeit only two hours a week) than could be gotten athome, at rallies, in youth clubs, and so forth. While some Staff members (many of whom had no formal pedagogical training) tended to rely too heavily on the adaptation of adult-oriented reading materials for lessons, the Socialist Sunday school movement as a hole did include a variety of teaching methods and materials, including lecture outlines, question-andanswer discussion formats, socialist and nonsocalist children’s readers and magazines, ames, roleplaying activities, field trips, guest speakers, songs, plays, and pageants.
The first Socialist Sunday schools were initiated soon after the organization of the Socialist Party in 1901. For example, the San Jose school was established by members of the local Socialist women’s club in 1902, and schools in Chicago, Boston, and ‘Omaha were organized in 1903. A slow but continue ous expansion occurred during the first two decades of the century, with a national organization, inte city conferences, and more supportive party initiatives in general taking place by 1918. Al ofthese efforts came to an abrupt halt, however, when the Socialis Paty split apart in 1919-1920. A few schools continued in existence during the 1920s, and about a dozen schools were reorganized in New York City